Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Fantasy Flight Games)

"Edge of the Empire" redirects here. For the 2010 film, see Edge of the Empire (film).

For other types of Star Wars role-playing game, see Star Wars role-playing games.

Star Wars

Roleplaying Game
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (core rulebook, June 2013), the first of the three standalone games which constitute the FFG Star Wars roleplaying game.
Designer(s)	Dave Allen, Shawn Carman and Jay Little
Publisher(s)	Fantasy Flight Games
Publication date	August 2012 (1st Beta) June 2013 (1st Edition of the 1st Rulebook)
Genre(s)	Science fiction (Space opera)
System(s)	Custom

The Star Wars Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe first published by Fantasy Flight Games in August 2012. It consists of three different standalone games, each one conceived to play a particular type of character:

• Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (for playing smugglers, bounty hunters, pirates etc.)
• Star Wars: Age of Rebellion (for playing rebel soldiers and freedom fighters against the evil Galactic Empire)
• Star Wars: Force and Destiny (for playing the last Jedi Knights under the Empire's rule)

History

In the 2000s, Wizards of the Coast owned the license for all Star Wars' collectible card and role-playing games. When the license expired in May 2010, the company declined to renew it. In August 2011 Fantasy Flight Games acquired the Star Wars license from Lucasfilm Ltd. and announced two Star Wars gaming products: the miniatures game X-Wing and the card game Star Wars: The Card Game. A role-playing game was rumored to be in the works but only a whole year later, in August 2012, the company announced the publication of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, the first standalone game of three, constituting the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The first installment of the "trilogy" was first sold in a beta version (Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beta). The completed version of Edge of the Empire, nearly double the size of the beta, was released on June 25, 2013. Age of Rebellion's beta version was released in October 2013, its beginner set was released on April 25, 2014, and the final version of the game, the Age of Rebellion core rulebook, was released on July 3, 2014. The third line of products, Star Wars: Force and Destiny, for playing Jedi characters, was released in beta in September 2014.

Fantasy Flight initially drew criticism for releasing a beta version, making people pay twice, and for the extra expense of the unusual custom dice. But reviews after launch were enthusiastic about the dice, with Game Informer saying "In practice, this system offers tremendous flexibility to allow the players to participate in the storytelling process, rather than just waiting for the GM to respond after a die roll. The players talk together about how to interpret a roll of the dice, and shape the results to make the most exciting story. It also speaks strongly to the cinematic nature of the Star Wars universe; characters in the movies often succeed or fail along with potent side effects." and Penny Arcade saying "This dice system is designed to facilitate awesome storytelling and it worked great!"

Timeline

File:Edge-of-the-Empire-Beta FFG 2012.jpg

Beta edition of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (August, 2012).

Release timeline:

• August 2012: Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beta Version
• December 2012: Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game a boxed set including the first mass-produced official dice of the game.
• January 2013: The stand-alone official dice sets from the game are released.
• June 2013: Star Wars: Edge of the Empire core rulebook
• September 2013: Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Beta Version
• April 2014: Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Beginner Game
• July 2014: Star Wars: Age of Rebellion core rulebook
• July 2014: The official dice sets from the game are re-released, this time with the label Star Wars Roleplaying Dice.
• September 2014: Star Wars: Force and Destiny Beta Version
• June 2015: Star Wars: Force and Destiny Beginner Game
• July 2015: Star Wars: Force and Destiny core rulebook

The setting

See also: Star Wars Expanded Universe

All three installments of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game are set within the time period of the Star Wars original trilogy. Star Wars: Edge of the Empire is set shortly after the explosion of the Death Star and deals with characters on the fringes of galactic space. Age of Rebellion is set around the time of The Empire Strikes Back and allows players to join the Rebellion. Force and Destiny is set shortly after the explosion of the first Death Star and the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi, when the force sensitive and Jedi slowly start to re-emerge in hopes of rebuilding the Order of the Jedi.

Characters are created within by first specifying their species, then their initial profession. Players can spend experience points increasing attributes or skills, or gaining abilities from their profession. As in some other career-based RPGs your current career indicates what you do and what skills you can learn easily, but you can open other careers and use abilities from them while not closing the first ones. Abilities from a given career cost more experience points the deeper into the career you go, thus encouraging people to take multiple careers.

The system

Attributes and Skills

The game's rules assume that all characters have all the listed skills at "zero level" if they do not have a level in it. The character's default skill level is equal to the skill's governing Attribute score. Attributes are rated from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6; skills have a maximum of 5.

The Attributes are Brawn (Strength), Agility (Dexterity), Intellect (Intelligence), Cunning (Wisdom), Willpower (Mental Focus), and Presence (Charisma).

Templates

The player begins character design by selecting a Racial Template. Each race has different racial attribute minimums and maximums. Sometimes they also have a free level in a Racial Skill or have a Racial Talent. As an example, Baseline Humans have a Racial Template that has a score of 2 in all Attributes and can have any two different Skills of the player's choice at the start of play. Characters can also pay points to increase Starting Wealth or Racial Advantages.

The player then picks a Career, which grants Career Skills. Then they pick a Specialization - which grants more Career Skills and a Specialization Tree (which grants Specialization-based Talents). Characters cannot buy a new Career but may buy additional Specializations.

Example: The Engineer Career narrows down to the Mechanic, Saboteur, and Scientist Specializations. If a character wishes to buy another Specialization, it costs less for one under their Career than for one under another Career. For instance, an Engineer - Mechanic who wants to add the Engineer's Scientist Specialization would pay less than if they wanted to add the Technician's Slicer or Ace's Pilot Specialization.

Career Skills grant the first level free during initial character creation (but cost points later on if a newly purchased Career Specialization grants them). They also cost less than regular Skills when buying additional levels in them. The character's Career grants 4 Career Skills from the Career template skill list and their Career Specialization grants 2 more Career Skills from the Specialization template skill list. For instance, an Engineer-Mechanic and Technician-Mechanic have the same Specialization Tree but have different Specialization template Career Skills to choose from to depict their different character concepts.

Talents are what gamers call "crunchy bits": advantages with cool names (like Gear Head or Hold Together, Baby) that add flavor to a character and either grant bonuses, benefit allies, remove penalties during play, or penalize adversaries. They cost character points to buy and must be unlocked in the order they appear on a diagram called a "Specialization Tree" (similar to those found in video games such as 'Star Wars: The Old Republic). The further down the diagram, the more expensive (and powerful) the Talents are. The player has to follow the Tree's branches to unlock them. This means that sometimes a player has to buy Talents that they do not really want in order to get to the desired Talents further down the same branch. However, it avoids having the character cherry-pick the more powerful Talents and leaving the rest. Talents are split into two color groups, with blue colored talents denoting passive abilities that can be used for the entire duration of the session and red colored talents denoting abilities that can only be used a limited number of times in a given session.

Disadvantages can be taken during character creation to offset point costs. Edge of the Empire has Obligations, something the character is forced or compelled to do. Age of Rebellion has Duties, something the character wants to do. The number of Player Characters in the group set the base Disadvantage number because the Game Master rolls at the beginning of play to see which character's Disadvantage will be used during the session. The character can pay off the disadvantage with experience points in later gameplay.

Force and Destiny has Morality, which governs how close to slipping over to the Dark Side the Force using character is. Unlike the other two games Morality is governed by a character's actions during gameplay, with Conflict being generated whenever they choose to perform a morally questionable action or choose to use the Dark Side of the Force in order to power their abilities. Morality cannot be 'bought' with XP, instead a player wanting to change their alignment must actually role play a more aggressive character to turn Dark, or perform acts of compassion to become a paragon of the Light.

Motivation is the character's guiding principle (a Belief, Personal Connection, or Quest). If the player uses the character's Motivation during gameplay, they get an experience point bonus.

The Custom Dice

As in Fantasy Flight Games' edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay the system requires custom polyhedral dice, or dice modified with stickers to play (the beta version came with stickers to convert ordinary dice of the right size to Star Wars dice).

The custom dice enable the dice having results on two axes; how successful the skill check was, and how lucky the attempt was with other factors – and normally only one success on the pass / fail axis is needed to succeed. There are both positive and negative types of dice, and these can be added to represent advantages or extra difficulty in the skill check.

White Die (The Force Die) (12-sided white die with one or two black or white dots per facet) are used to calculate the number of Force Tokens granted at the beginning of the scenario. The Player Characters' party gets some of one color and the game master gets the tokens of the opposing color. White Tokens (The Light Side) are for the Good Guys and Black Tokens (The Dark Side) are for the Bad Guys; the party's affiliation determines which color they get. Every time a token is used by the party or the game master, it is flipped over to change its color and awards either a bonus die (Green or Yellow) for a character's action or a penalty die (Purple or Red) for the opposition. The tokens can also be used to change the situation ("I'm drawing my pistol..." "Did you remember to retrieve your pistol when you fell down that hillside last scene?") or cancel out or re-roll an unfavorable result like a fatal hit or pivotal skill-check failure.

Green Dice (Ability Die) (8-sided green dice with black markings) are based on the character's Attribute level. They only have Success, Advantage, and blank faces.

Purple Dice (Difficulty Die) (8-sided purple dice with white markings) are based on the Difficulty of the skill roll. They only have Failure, Threat, and blank faces.

Yellow Dice (Proficiency Die) (12-sided yellow dice with black markings) indicate the character's level in a skill. Each level in a skill substitutes a Yellow Die for a Green Die in a skill roll. The Yellow Dice are like the green Ability Dice, except they have a Triumph (critical success) result symbol on one of its faces.

Red Dice (Challenge Die) (12-sided red dice with white markings) are used with an opposing skill level or extreme difficulty. Red Dice are like the purple Difficulty Dice except they have a Despair (critical failure) result symbol on one of its faces.

Blue Dice (Boost Die) (6-sided light-blue dice with black markings) are used to aid a skill roll due to advantageous factors. They only have Success, Advantage, and blank faces. Player Characters with equal or greater skill can take an action to aid another Player Character who is using a skill to perform a task by granting them a Blue Die.

Black Dice (Setback Die) (6-sided black dice with white markings) are used to penalize a skill roll due to disadvantageous factors. They only have Failure, Threat, and blank faces.

The results on the dice are Success (explosion symbol)/Failure (caltrop symbol), Advantage (a pip in a wreath)/Threat (a pip on the central facet of a faceted sphere), or Critical Success (starburst in a circle)/Critical Failure (triangle in a circle). Blank faces confer no benefit or penalty. The result depends on subtracting the lower result from the higher result on an axis. A result of 4 Successes and 3 Failures is a Success of 1. A result of 2 Advantages and 5 Threats is a Threat of 3. A result of no Critical Successes and 1 Critical Failure is 1 Critical Failure. These results mean that the character made the Skill roll with a bonus of 1 Success, but suffered 3 Threats and a Critical Failure as well. The Game Master would interpret the result to indicate what problems and difficulties would happen next.

For example, a Rebel commando bumps into a squad of Stormtroopers turning around a corner and he shoots his blaster at them. The player rolls the 1 Success, 3 Threats, and a Critical Failure from the above example. His blaster shot would have hit (1 Success), but he would only do base damage because he did not roll any Advantages. The Game Master interprets the negative results to mean that the commando suffers 1 point of Strain (1 Threat), suffers 1 Black Die on the next skill roll (2 Threats), and the power cell in his blaster ran out and needs to be reloaded (1 Critical Failure).

Careers and Specializations

Edge of the Empire

• Bounty Hunter: Assassin, Gadgeteer, Survivalist
• Colonist: Doctor, Politico, Scholar, Entrepreneur, Marshal, Performer
• Explorer: Fringer, Scout, Trader, Archaeologist, Big-Game Hunter, Driver
• Hired Gun: Bodyguard, Marauder, Mercenary Soldier, Demolitionist, Enforcer, Heavy
• Smuggler: Pilot, Scoundrel, Thief, Charmer, Gambler, Gunslinger
• Technician: Mechanic, Outlaw Tech, Slicer, Cyber Tech, Droid Tech, Modder
• Universal: Force Sensitive Exile

Age of Rebellion

• Ace: Driver, Gunner, Pilot, Beast Rider, Hotshot, Rigger
• Commander: Commodore, Squadron Leader, Tactician, Figurehead, Instructor, Strategist
• Diplomat: Agitator, Ambassador, Quartermaster, Advocate, Analyst, Propagandist
• Engineer: Mechanic, Saboteur, Scientist
• Soldier: Commando, Medic, Sharpshooter, Heavy, Trailblazer, Vanguard
• Spy: Scout, Slicer, Infiltrator
• Universal: Force Sensitive Emergent, Recruit

Force and Destiny

• Consular: Healer, Niman Disciple, Sage
• Guardian: Peacekeeper, Protector, Soresu Defender, Warleader, Armorer, Warden
• Mystic: Advisor, Makashi Duelist, Seer
• Seeker: Ataru Striker, Hunter, Pathfinder, Executioner, Hermit, Navigator
• Sentinel: Artisan, Shadow, Shien Expert
• Warrior: Aggressor, Shii-Cho Knight, Starfighter Ace

Official games and supplements for Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

• Rulebooks / basic sets
  • Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - Beta
  • Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - Beginner Game
  • Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - Core Rulebook
• Accessories
  • Edge of the Empire Game Master's Kit (includes the gamemaster's screen)
• Adventures
  • Beyond the Rim
  • The Jewel of Yavin
  • Mask of the Pirate Queen
• Rules Supplements
  • Enter the Unknown (Explorer Career Book)
  • Dangerous Covenants (Hired Gun Career Book)
  • Far Horizons (Colonist Career Book)
  • Fly Casual (Smuggler Career Book)
  • Special Modifications (Technician Career Book)
• Sourcebooks
  • Suns of Fortune (Corellian Sector Source Book)
  • Lords of Nal Hutta (Hutt Space Source Book)

Official games and supplements for Star Wars: Age of Rebellion

• Rulebooks / basic sets
  • Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Beta
  • Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Beginner Game
  • Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Core Rulebook
• Accessories
  • Age of Rebellion Game Master's Kit (includes the gamemaster's screen)
• Adventures
  • Onslaught at Arda I
  • Rescue at Glare Peak (Rebellion Day Supplemental Adventure)
• Rules Supplements
  • Stay on Target (Ace Career Book)
  • Desperate Allies (Diplomat Career Book)
  • Lead by Example (Commander Career Book)
  • Forged in Battle (Soldier Career Book)
• Sourcebooks
  • Strongholds of Resistance (Alliance Worlds Source Book)

Official games and supplements for Star Wars: Force and Destiny

• Rulebooks / basic sets
  • Star Wars: Force and Destiny - Beta
  • Star Wars: Force and Destiny - Beginner Game
  • Star Wars: Force and Destiny - Core Rulebook
• Accessories
  • Force and Destiny Game Master's Kit (includes the gamemaster's screen)
• Adventures
  • Chronicles of the Gatekeeper
• Rules Supplements and Sourcebooks
  • Keeping the Peace (Guardian Career Book)
  • Savage Spirits (Seeker Career Book)
• Sourcebooks
  • Nexus of Power (Worlds Strong in the Force Source Book)

See also

• Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast)